Oak Hill Homestead

Silver Sunday

2013-05-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4 (NIV) ~~~~~

Friday Follow-Up

2013-05-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

This week:

We finished fencing in a larger goat pen for the does, fixed the chicken coop door, reattached a board on a horse stall, and replaced a fence panel in the riding pen.

Hubby mowed the deep clover in the riding pen.

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My younger female cat, Pilar, gave birth to two solid black kittens. A first-time mom, she demanded my company. At first she wasn't very attentive and I worried, but when she was all finished she settled down into motherhood. One kitten has white feet, which definitely rules out my only male, Smokey, as the father. Evidently the blue-and-white male from down the road was here at the appropriate time, even though I didn't see him.

Sadly, the solid black kitten died after four days. I hope the black and white one will survive; only kittens can be hard to raise.

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I removed all the clutter from inside the chicken coop (boards, broken feeders, a bucket and so on) so that there isn't anywhere for that snake to hide. So far, so good, and I'm collecting eggs again.

Yesterday morning something went through the chicken wire into the coop's run. Another rooster is missing, which isn't a big deal, but a hen was dead in the corner. Currently: five hens and three roosters.

I'd set an empty bucket down on the front porch one afternoon. When I went out to feed the next morning, it had a layer of "June bugs" in the bottom. I remembered that a friend does this: he and his children pick up bugs every morning to feed the chickens. I was careful to put the bucket back in the same place so that it can gather the bugs that are attracted to the porch light every night. Free chicken feed!

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Thankful Thursday

2013-05-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am thankful to the Lord, my God, for:

- more rain
- sounds: listening to the birds, insects, wind
- hubby's day off
- new kittens
- grass for the horses

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Chicken Wrangling

2013-05-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

On Saturday hubby and I went outside to work on the new goat fence. I heard hubby yell to me, and I ran outside. One of my white and black roosters was in the front yard near the goat pen, with Sissy nearby. Amazingly, the pup who seldom listens to me actually called off, and I put the dogs back in the house.

My chickens are kept penned up for their own protection from the local predators. Even with Juliet and Cracker, the outside dogs, I won't let the chickens loose. Cracker is untrustworthy around birds anyway, and Juliet lives here because she killed chickens at her former home, so they aren't really any help as far as poultry goes.

The white and black rooster then caught sight of the road and made a run for it, intent on "crossing the road". Fortunately our front gate is lined with chicken wire and put an end to his quest for fame and freedom. Hubby caught him and we headed to the chicken coop to see what disaster had befallen.

We found a big hole in the mesh of the screen door, Cracker-sized. Inside, one of the hens appeared dead, although when hubby picked her up she flapped her wings and was fine after that. The other birds were hiding in corners and out in the run. It was too hard to count with birds piled on top of other birds, but I could see that the two important hens, Flower and Nemo, were still inside.

We fixed the door, lining it with goat fencing. Later in the day while working on the goat fence, I heard a hen making noise from the wrong direction. I walked around behind a shed and found both my dark red hen and the black-breasted red rooster. With careful herding I sent them towards the chicken coop and caught the hen. The rooster wanted nothing to do with me, and since I have FIVE roosters and only SIX hens, I told that rooster I really didn't care. At sundown he was willing to follow me into the coop and settle down for the night. I noticed that another white and black rooster was missing though. I could hear him way out in the woods and decided not to attempt what I knew would be an impossible task to rescue him. I now have four roosters.

In my coop there are now 3 red star hens...

one cuckoo marans hen named Speckles...

one black hen (a buff orpington/black australorp cross) named Flower...

and Nemo, the gold hen flecked with black...

Nemo was one of the chicks we hatched several years ago, a cross between our buff orpington rooster and an americana hen. I was never sure which hen was their mother, but we incubated many batches of eggs that year and each chick that looked like Nemo when it hatched grew up to be a gold-flecked-with-black female that laid green eggs. See, you can hatch your own sex link chickens!

In fact, those white and black roosters are a sex link cross. A friend gave me a dozen chicks from the batch they incubated, and all of the yellow chicks turned out to be white cockerels with black markings. (I still need to give three of those four roosters away.)

The hatcheries have their own sex link crosses of course, and you can duplicate those breedings (I wrote a post on this here), but sometimes it happens with other random crosses as well. It takes time and record-keeping, but after a year or so you might realize you've discovered an accidental cross that will give you chicks you can sex as soon as they are hatched. Wouldn't that be handy?

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A Slice of My Life

2013-05-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Each year the Hot Cocoa rose blooms around Mother's Day. This year, like last year, the first bud opened on Sunday. ~~~~~

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Woolly Mullein

2013-05-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

"A weed is simply a plant that you don't know what to do with."

Author Unknown

We have a patch of woolly mullein growing in a far corner of the hayfield. I love that so many herbs grow wild here on our land. Even though they're not growing close at hand in my yard, I know where they are and that they are available if I need them.

Woolly mullein (or "wooly" - it's spelled both ways) is also known as common mullein, great mullein, flannel mullein, velvet dock, flannel leaf, witch's taper, candlestick and other names. It grows in "disturbed places" such as roadsides, ditches, fields and abandoned areas. There is a huge patch in a cattle pasture down the road from us where dozer work was done a few years ago.

Mullein is a biennial, taking two years to complete its growing cycle. The large, fuzzy, sage-green leaves grow low to the ground the first year and are quite unmistakeable; the second year the plant sends up a tall flowering spike that can reach six feet or more in height. Found throughout the United States in zones 3-9, it prefers partial sun and dry soil, and will continue to grow and thrive through drought years.

The plants are hard to transplant due to the very long taproot, but you can find usually find seedlings near the brown stalks of last year's plants. They are worth growing in your garden for the texture of the leaves and the striking flower stalks. The flowers attract bees and other beneficial insects. Wouldn't your child or grandchild enjoy stroking the soft fuzzy leaves? I'm going to look for seedlings to transplant to the yard before our granddaughter comes to visit this summer. You can also gather and plant the tiny seeds in the fall.

Mullein is also a very useful herb. Teas and ointments made from its leaves are used to treat respiratory problems, lung diseases, burns, rashes and more. The tiny hairs that make the leaves soft and fuzzy can be irritating so any teas must be strained and filtered carefully to remove the hairs. Leaves should be harvested during the first year of growth, according to the information I've read.

The tiny yellow flowers provide a soothing and cleansing effect to skin problems. An easy treatment for minor wounds and scrapes is to use mullein tea as a wash. The flowers can also be infused in oil and used as a very effective treatment for ear infections. The infused oil combined with beeswax makes a mild but effective ointment that prevents and treats diaper rash.

Stock photo from morguefile.com

Because the flowers are tiny and open over a period of time, it's necessary to either harvest from a large patch or to pick the open flowers daily. Remember to harvest responsibly: don't strip a patch bare by taking all the plants and/or flowers.

Have you ever noticed a mullein flower stalk that is twisted or crooked? The stalks indicate the contamination level of the soil. Straight stalks indicate clean soil; if the stalks are anything other than straight and healthy, the soil is contaminated by chemicals.

Remember, before using this or any herb, please research it fully. You are responsible for your own health. You'll find lots of information on using mullein at herbcraft.org and Meadowsweet Herbs.

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Silver Sunday

2013-05-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.

~ Psalm 100 (NIV)

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Friday Follow-Up

2013-05-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

This week:

-- The farrier came and trimmed all 24 hooves. I then gave him a lesson in trimming goat hooves, as he'd just bought some boer goats.

-- I sold one of the horses. While I know he is going to the most excellent home ever (I know the young woman's brother), I still hated to see the big old guy leave. He's such a sweetheart and a bit of a clown, but I have too many and need to reduce my workload as well as my feed bill.

My favorite photo of Dakota; it truly shows his personality.

-- I haven't seen the black snake in the chicken coop again, but I'm very cautious going in there! I really don't like snakes. It must be pretty funny to watch me stick my head inside, look around, and walk in so very, very carefully, looking in every direction...

-- Yesterday when I walked to the mailbox I noticed a white flower and had to look closer. It's a daffodil! Hubby mowed them all down a couple of weeks ago - I can never convince him to leave them to die like you're supposed to, and I'm sure that's why they don't bloom well - but this one and two others sent up flower stalks and bloomed anyway! No foliage at all, just the three stalks with a bloom on the end of each one.

-- One day this week I did something I've wanted to do for several years: I went on a photo safari at a wildlife ranch about an hour away from home. For two hours a guide took me around the 3,000 acre hunting facility and I took as many photos as I desired. We even discovered a newborn buffalo calf, dried off but its mother hadn't yet dropped the placenta. The whole experience was priceless!

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Thankful Thursday

2013-05-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am thankful to the Lord, my God, for:

- our cold weather seems to be over
- a priceless day
- a tiny pink moth on the screen door
- the opportunity to help out a friend
- an answer to prayer

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A Slice of My Life

2013-05-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

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Indian Paintbrush

2013-05-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Due to this spring's plentiful rain, for which I am very thankful, the wildflowers are spectacular. We've always had Indian paintbrush plants in the hayfield, but one day recently I looked out that direction and realized that there were bands of orange flowers, more than ever before.

On the next sunny day I hiked out there with my camera and my longest lens (I was practicing for an upcoming fun project, more on that soon).

Cracker went with me. Or rather, I couldn't get rid of him. He loves to stand in front of me and block my shots. Eventually he went off on his own and skulked in the woods, keeping an eye on me the whole time.

The Indian paintbrush were spectacular.

The bluish patches and twigs in the photos are last year's dead undergrowth. The hayfield hasn't been mowed for two years due to the extreme drought; there just wasn't enough grass to cut. Instead we let the horses out in the hayfield in the winter to graze it down. They left the weeds, of course. If only it were fenced for goats...

And then the horses went walkabout in early spring and I shut the gate. It was nearly time to do that anyway, so that the grass will grow for this year's hay crop.

This sure looks like a yellow Indian paintbrush but I don't know if it really is or not. I've never seen one before. I found four or five of them, all in the same area.

I did not find my wild bergamot plant in the hayfield, or any wild indigo in the pasture or the hayfield. It makes me wonder if Chuck, the steer, ate them and they are no more? I know he obliterated my lambs ear patch.

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Silver Sunday

2013-05-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

You have set Your glory
in the heavens.

Psalm 8:1 (NIV)

~~~~~

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Friday Follow-Up

2013-05-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

This week:

-- I've been trying for two weeks to get a good photo of the turtles sunning on the fence wire in the pond. They sense me coming and plunk back into the water before I get there. I finally managed to get close enough for a couple of shots, and then Cracker jumped into the pond and scared them off the fence.

-- I've been blessed to see several uncommon bird sights this week: cattle egrets, a bluebird on a fencepost, a hawk plummeting to the ground with its prey, and a small owl in the middle of the dirt road as we drove home after dark. I do occasionally see cattle egrets in the summer; they are smaller white cranes that follow the cattle around the pastures, eating bugs in the cattle droppings. As well, I enjoyed seeing both a blue heron and a great white egret at opposite sides of a roadside pond.

-- On the other side of the coin, the horse flies are already bad, and there was a snake in the chicken coop. No wonder egg production had dropped off suddenly a few days before.

-- The wildflowers are blooming profusely, a palette of bright color in fields and along roadsides. A neighbor's crimson clover is blooming, interspersed with yellow patches of an unknown flower. Indian paintbrush patches are everywhere, lush from the spring's rain. The wild indigo is in bloom. We are too far north for Texas bluebonnets but I'm guessing they too are prolific this year; I hope someday that we can take a drive to see them.

-- Each time we have frost in the morning I hope it is the last time. The tomato clones have taken over my kitchen and there's no room for food preparation. I looked up our average last frost date: April 15th. In fact, Dave's Garden says: "Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from October 28 through April 3. Almost certainly, however, you will receive frost from November 9 through March 22. You are almost guaranteed that you will not get frost from April 16 through October 14." They're a little off this year. This morning we had a frost warning, but our thermometer read 34 so I think we escaped damage -- I hope.

-- Last Saturday our 4-H horse club put on a benefit trail ride at a nearby lake. The night before it had rained and hailed on top of the already-muddy trails, and the day dawned cold and windy and dark. We were thrilled to have riders and horses show up anyway. It wasn't a large turnout, but we are thankful for those who did brave the weather and the mud and the full creek crossings. It was a wonderful day spent with old and new friends.

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Thankful Thursday

2013-05-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am thankful to the Lord, my God, for:

- puffy white clouds in blue skies
- songbirds
- a palette of wildflowers in all colors
- shedding horses
- a morning to sleep in

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A Trip to the Dentist

2013-05-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

On Monday I took Ella to the dentist to have her teeth floated. I trailered her to a friend's house, where several other people also brought their horses. Soon after Ella and I arrived the equine dentist and her assistant drove up and unloaded their gear.

The examination showed that Ella did have some dental issues. She'd cut up the inside of her right cheek with the rough spots on her molars. The dentist said that all horses need their teeth done regularly, whether we can see problems or not. Ella is 12 years old.

Ella was given a shot to relax her, and the speculum was strapped over her head. The two metal plates were "dialed" apart so that her mouth was held open. Something I'd never seen before: they used a crutch under the horse's chin to keep them from leaning on the assistant. The horse leans on the crutch instead (or so the theory goes).

Then the dentist went to work, filing teeth with several different tools, checking to feel the progress, and squirting water in Ella's mouth to rinse it out.

When she was finished, she put one hand under Ella's chin, the other on top of her nose, and wiggled her upper and lower jaws back and forth to see if there were any "hang up" spots. Her teeth ground smoothly back and forth, and she was pronounced done.

Just in case you're interested in the inside of a horse's mouth, here is the jawbone of a horse (something the dog dragged home). (You can also read more about horse's teeth at this very informative link.)

The front teeth are all that you see in a live horse's mouth, but this shows the molars further back.

The top jaw is wider than the lower jaw, and rough, sharp edges can develop on the inside of the lower teeth or on the outside of the upper teeth.

Ella should now be set for awhile. Hopefully she'll put on a little more weight, and she'll certainly be more comfortable when her cheek heals up.

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A Slice of My Life

2013-04-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

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Plantain

2013-04-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Plantain is a plentiful "weed" that is usually overlooked in the landscape, yet it is a beneficial herb.

It grows along our driveway and in the front yard - I won't use the term "lawn" because I think we have everything growing BUT grass. Plantain is a low-growing plant and is most easily recognized when the flower spikes are reaching for the sky. The seeds are known as psyllium and are used as dietary fiber in products such as Metamucil.

Plantain is very versatile. The leaves' most common use is to relieve pain from insect stings and bites, and burns. Fresh leaves are bruised (usually by chewing the leaves for a moment or two) and applied to the wound, refreshing with new leaves as needed. It also helps to close the edges of wounds.

Plantain tea can also be applied to skin as a wash to relieve sunburn, windburn and rashes. To make tea, add a small handful of fresh, bruised leaves to a cup of water and bring to a gentle boil, then remove from the heat, let steep and strain out the leaves.

I also make plantain-infused oil. I fill a canning jar with fresh, bruised leaves, cover the plant matter with olive oil, and warm the oil by placing the jar in a saucepan of simmering water for several hours. When finished, strain the leaves from the oil and store in the refrigerator. The plantain turns the oil such a pretty green color.

I use the infused oil in soapmaking. I also make a plantain salve for insect bites and other minor skin irritations by adding beeswax to the warm oil. The salve and the soap both retain the oil's green tint.

Do you have plantain or other beneficial herbs growing wild?

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Silver Sunday

2013-04-28T07:20:00.006-05:00

Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Psalm 84:10 (NIV) ~~~~~

Friday Follow-Up

2013-04-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

This week:

-- Monday morning a man knocked at our door and asked if we knew who owned the two sorrel horses up the road. While this man was out hunting turkeys, he noticed that one of the horses was down. He jumped the fence to see if he could help, but sadly the horse was dead. She'd caught her halter on the hay ring surrounding the round bale of hay, struggled and perished. So sad. If I haven't said this before, I'll say it now: do not leave a halter on your horse. If you simply must (in other words, you'd never again catch the horse without a halter on it), please buy a breakaway halter that will be more likely to break if the horse catches it on something.

Similarly, don't leave a collar on a dog that roams, or on an outside cat, or on a goat. Breakaway collars are available for dogs and cats; Hoegger Goat Supply offers plastic chain collars that will break if the goat gets hung up.

-- Wildflowers are beginning to bloom: Indian paintbrush covers the roadsides in bright orange swaths, and tiny purple flowers on tall stalks wave in the breeze. Tiger swallowtail, yellow and tiny black butterflies flit around the apple blossoms.

-- Cracker continues to bring bones up from the ravine, and Sissy continues to bring the bones in the house with her. Yesterday it was a small jawbone; Monday it was the skull and antlers from a young buck deer.

-- We had record-breaking lows this week, but fortunately it wasn't below freezing. Our average last frost date is April 15. Hopefully the fruit crop survived.

-- I heard the first whippoorwill of the season.

-- Helpful hints: How to weigh your horse without a scale.

What's up where you live?

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Thankful Thursday

2013-04-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am thankful to the Lord, my God, for:

- the nearly-full pond, with ducks
- tiger swallowtail butterflies in the apple blossoms
- friendship, patience and grace
- answered prayers
- a field of Indian paintbrush wildflowers

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What Kind?

2013-04-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Recently a good friend back in Michigan asked me what kind of goat I would recommend for their family with three small children.

Several years ago they'd been given a pygmy goat that had turned her husband against goats: the goat had gotten out and led them a merry chase across the road and around a huge field. (That reminds me of a similar afternoon my hubby and I spent when we first bought our Nubians!)

My doe Firefly as a newborn
Photo credit: SE Cates

With her little ones, I suggested a mini dairy breed. Nigerian Dwarfs are calm and sweet and beause they are popular, they are easy to find. There are also rarer Kinders (a cross between Nubians and Pygmies), and miniature versions of most of the larger dairy breeds created by crossing the larger breed does to Nigerian Dwarf bucks.

I also recommend getting disbudded goats, whose horn buds were burned off when they were very young. My personal feeling is that goats with horns do not belong around children. Some goats just know they have horns and how to use them, but even those with sweet temperaments can catch you accidently with a horn. Smaller goats with no horns seem to me to be the best choice for a young family.

Newly disbudded - you can see the rings on her head where Firefly's horn buds were burned.

If you just want pets, either does or neutered males (wethers) are good family companions.. Does don't have to be bred and milked unless you want to do so.

Whether large or small, all goats need good fencing. Chicken wire isn't strong enough; welded wire isn't either. Goats are hard on fences, but smaller goats aren't as hard as big goats. And just like big goats, you need at least two: an only goat is a problem goat - like that pygmy that got loose!

Which reminds me of a favorite saying: "goats are like potato chips, you can't have just one."

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A Slice of My Life

2013-04-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Finally, the little daffodils are blooming in an unused corner of the yard.

Some years they don't bloom at all.

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Sweet Dreams

2013-04-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

I've been having a hard time sleeping lately. Either I can't shut off my brain and fall asleep, or I wake up an hour later and am awake for hours. Sometimes I've spent the entire night staring at the ceiling, which is not at all fun.

I began researching online and found a "sleep salve" for sale here. That made me wonder if I could make something similar myself, such as this one by Rosemary Gladstar. I gathered some herbs and essential oils that I had on hand that are supposed to be calming and relaxing. I didn't want to "make" myself go to sleep, just to help myself relax and unwind.

Disclaimer: If you're interested in making something similar, please research the herbs that you are planning to use. I am not a licensed herbalist or a medical practictioner. You are responsible for your own health.

I used about a half-teaspoon each of dried rose petals, rosemary, chamomile, catnip, and lemon balm.

I measured 4 tablespoons of olive oil into a half-pint canning jar, and put it in a small saucepan with enough water to reach as high on the jar as the oil was inside. I added the herbs to the oil, and let the water in the saucepan simmer gently for about 3 hours, checking it often to make sure the water didn't evaporate away.

Then I removed the jar and strained the plant material from the oil by pouring it through a clean white handkerchief over a funnel. I squeezed the fabric to get all the herbal goodness out.

I poured the herb-infused oil into a Pyrex measuring cup, set it in the water in the saucepan, added one tablespoon of beeswax pellets to the oil, and brought the warm water in the pot back to a simmer until the beeswax melted.

When the beeswax was melted and had mixed with the oil, I removed the measuring cup from the saucepan and added 15 drops of lavender essential oil and 1/8 teaspoon of Vitamin E as a preservative, mixed it with the end of a plastic spoon, then poured it into two small jars. It solidified as it cooled.

This can be rubbed on temples, wrists, under the nose. It can even be used in the middle of the night, when one wakes up and can't get back to sleep.

I've used it each night since making it, and I've slept quite well. It has a beautiful fragrance, fresh and very light. If you like a more-than-subtle fragrance, you might want to add a little more essential oil. Feel free to experiment with the amount of essential oils and with the variety of herbs you use. Other oils I've seen suggested are sandalwood, ylang ylang, rosewood, and tangerine.

Sweet dreams!

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Silver Sunday

2013-04-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.

Proverbs 24:3-4 (NIV)

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Friday Follow-Up

2013-04-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

This week:

-- The apple trees have finally broken into bloom, and the flowers smell so good! I can smell their sweetness when I walk to the mailbox. I find it interesting that most fruit trees bloom first and then leaf out, but apple trees grow leaves first and then blossoms.

-- It wouldn't be spring in Oklahoma without the threat of tornadoes. We've had several storms this week, but tornado watches mean we are having rain. A major storm blew through Wednesday night; while we just had about half an inch of heavy rain, not far from us the rainfall total was 4.7 inches. We've had a very cool, long spring but we've certainly been blessed with rain.

-- Cracker has been bringing "found objects" into the back goat pen at night, and chewing on them. One morning I found an old skull and a hip bone (don't worry, not human!); the next morning a heavy leg bone. The Valley of Dry Bones in the Book of Ezekiel came to mind. Another morning I spotted a round black object, something that wasn't instantly recognizable. I walked over to look: it was my son's old basketball, which we haven't seen in years. Cracker must have pulled it out of a shed. I can't even count how many skulls of various kinds that our dogs have brought home over the years, like this one in 2009.

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